lecture6-Childrearing advice 1990s-present.pdf

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School

Ryerson University

Department

Sociology

Course

SOC 605

Professor

Kelly Train

Semester

Summer

Description

Childrearing and Childhood
May-31-12
1:29 AM
1) Medical advice to another
a. 1880s-1940s
→ Until 1880s you went from being infant to miniature adults.
→ You were expected to work from the time you were not infants.
→ Starting from 1880s, the childrearing started to emerge. There was no such a thing like
medicine. The concept Hygiene and health started to emerge. For the first time ever,
there was a connection between health and hygiene. Doctors ,all of sudden,gained
control over medicine. In fact, they made themselves experts.
→ The Childbirth was the biggest killer for women. It was the norm that 1 of 3 children
were expected to survive. The concept of being a good mother was linked with the
children's wellbeing.
→ Because of the highest child mortality rate, doctors were preparing mothers for that.
They were implicitly and explicitly saying "do not to attach to your children, don’t pick
them up, let them cry, and your husband came first.".
b. 1950-1990
→ This period is very well-known because of Dr. Spock. Now you were responsible for
psychical and emotional wellbeing for your children. You were expected all your
children were going to survive.
→ This meant of an opposite kind of advise. Post ww2 era, women had been told go
home and take care of your children, now a good mother who someone spend all her
time with her children. To be able to purchase a refrigerator, creation of the deep
freezers, invention of the TV dinners, purchase of premade foods, creation of the
washing machines meant that you had a lot of free time from the perspective of
medical experts. Thus, women should be spending all her time with the child.
2) The Role of development psychology
○ Maternal deprivation-->If you did not spend enough time with your children,
You are perceived as a bad mother. If you don’t spend all your time with your
kids, your children would become emotionally dysfunctional adults.
Moreover ,the idea of course was enforced to keep mothers away from